Fundraiser

I know God has something good in store for my family because, as worldly situations go, things can’t get much worse for us.

Already, the signs of a bright new horizon for us are coming around. Mary and I have three FT job interviews between the two of us this week, and I have a number of outstanding applications that I’m hoping will result in at least one interview.

However, back in May, my handicapped van (a 2000 Chevy Express) broke down. The used engine I had installed when I bought it died, and it’s been sitting for over 2 months at Herndon Chevrolet in Lexington, SC, under the care of a mechanic named Bucky. I’ve tried just about everything for help. Everyone in the extended family is tapped out. A new engine is going to cost $5400

There is no direct charity I can appeal to. In one sense, there’s a temptation to just get a new vehicle, except that:

a) my motorized wheelchair is stuck in the back of the van,
b) we just had the *lift* repaired before the engine died,
c) it’s difficult to find a vehicle that’s both handicapped accessible and big enough for our family, without buying another government surplus van that will still need a new engine.

I’ve been walking, using a walker, for two months now, hoping to get my van back soon, and now everything hurts. One of the reasons I use a wheelchair is to stop my knees and my back from being issues at all, and they hurt like crazy. A few weeks ago, both my knees gave out at daily Mass, I crawled back from communion, and two older men had to help carry me to my car. In addition to my kneecaps themselves, it felt like the joints were just incapable of sustaining my weight, and I apparently did something to my upper left leg. The pain inside my knees was so bad that I worked my way through every level of pain killer I have, and I was still in pain. I spent the next 3 days sedentary until the pain finally went away.

And that’s not even getting into the issue of what it’s all doing to my cardiovascular system.

Plus, if I *am* to take a full time job out of the home, I”m going to need my van and my chair.

The other day, I posted an ad of Craigslist, asking for an anonymous benefactor or plural, and I’m partially making the same request here. Just to prove the legitimacy of it, I’m asking for anyone even half willing to contact not me but Bucky at Herndon.

OTOH, one way that a lot of people can help is by finally getting a copy of Hide Me In Your Wounds. The MP3 album price is only $8.99, the same price as Amazon charges for all its self-published MP3 albums. But most of that money comes to me. If, by some miracle of the Holy Spirit, I can get 900 people to purchase copies in the next couple weeks, that will pay for the repairs to my van.

The feedback I’ve gotten about my CD so far has been very positive–nice comments on Facebook from people who’ve purchased it; family and friends who say they listen to it daily; and three nuns who say they listen to it daily and have found it very inspiring!

In the past month, I’ve sent out review copies to various Catholic media outlets.